Letter Carriers Protest Outsourcing at Postal HQ
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Your friendly letter
carrier may soon be a thing of the past. The
Postal Service’s push to privatize and
outsource letter carriers was targeted by a
rally of hundreds of carriers Monday afternoon
at Postal Service headquarters at L’Enfant
Plaza, organized by the National Association of
Letter Carriers (NALC). The protest, despite a
biting wind and intermittent rain, showed the
agency NALC will fight the Bush
regime’s plans to gradually outsource their
jobs, by replacing retiring Letter Carriers
with lower-paid, low-benefit “casuals.” The
agency’s effort to cut labor costs by
inserting “casuals” is a major sticking
point in bargaining with the NALC, which
represents more than 200,000 letter carriers
nationwide. The protesters made
their voices heard despite the wind, repeatedly
chanting “No contracting out!” One
said “We’ll stay here till we’re blue”
from the cold. But the unionists were concerned
not just about their own jobs, but their
communities, too--and they intend to rally
constituents to their side nationwide. “This
is just the beginning. Eventually they
want to replace all of us with
‘casuals,’” said Ed Smith of Local 1427
in Santa Clara, Calif. “They want to
use low-wage no-benefit workers. Their
goal is to have a Wal-Mart atmosphere,” he
added, referring to the giant retailer--the
nation’s largest private firm--known for its
low pay, anti-union hatred and lack of health
care benefits. “The Letter Carrier comes to
your home every day. Do you want a professional union Letter
Carrier who cares about you, or not?
That’s the message we’ll take to
communities,” he added. Replacement of the
Letter Carriers with casuals is a particular
sore point with Denise Null, President of
Branch 555, in Cheyenne, Wyo. Her state
is so thinly populated that it has only 300
NALC members. “We know our customers on
a first-name basis.” If casuals come
in, “when its 20 below zero and the wind is
blowing at 70 mph, the mail may not get
delivered,” she added. Kenneth Lerch,
President of Local 3825 in Rockville, Md., put
the Postal Service’s push for “casuals”
into a national context. “This is
nothing more than union-busting ordered from
the highest levels of the Bush
administration,” he said. Lerch noted
the agency’s board of governors is chaired by
right wing former Reagan administration
official Jim Miller. “I’d like to see
informational picketing at every post office in
the country” about the agency’s campaign to
insert “casuals,” he added. “Do we really
want low-bidder unscreened people coming to our
doors every day?” NALC Branch 210 President
Ken Lerch asked, pointing out that letter
carriers – who are now trained, professional
and unionized – know who’s home and who’s
not in neighborhoods across the country.
Contracted-out letter carriers would have no
benefits, no leave, retirement or medical
coverage under the Postal Services plan,
according to the NALC, which will be working
closely with community organizations to oppose
the privatization plan. Photos
by Chris Garlock
- reported by Press Associates,
Inc.